Title: By Scarlet Torch and Blade
Author: Anthony Euwer
Release date: February 13, 2021 [eBook #64548]
Language: English
Credits: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
BY
ANTHONY EUWER
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
Copyright, 1923
by
Anthony Euwer
Second printing, January, 1926
Made in the United States of America
To the Memory of
MY SISTER
MARIAN
WHOSE NEVER FAILING ENCOURAGEMENT
WENT FAR TOWARD THE MAKING OF
THIS BOOK.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To all the joy that colors give beneath the sun and moon; to all pleasurable sounds and wholesome odors of the earth and air and sea; to the warmth and glow of genial firesides and to the bite of winter winds; to the rain upon the lichens; to the majesty of mountains and the awfulness of high places; to the darkness of caves and the friendliness of far-off trails; to every furry thing—the shy, the dumb, and whatsoever creature has found expression in his fancy; to both the nobler and the meaner natures of men; to life’s laughter and life’s tears and to all fruitful experience; to these sources, for whatsoever [Pg viii] good may here be found, the author makes acknowledgment.
A number of the rhymes in the present volume have previously appeared in the Associated Press, Judge, Leslie’s, the Oregon Sunday Journal, and The Open Road. For permission to reprint the drawings the author is indebted to the publishers of Scribner’s Magazine.
PART ONE | |
THE OPEN SPACES | |
PAGE | |
By Scarlet Torch and Blade | 3 |
Builders of Highways | 10 |
Oregon Snow | 18 |
The Pruner | 23 |
Snoots | 27 |
Little Black Bull | 30 |
Mountain Tops | 32 |
The River | 33 |
The Juggler | 34 |
Nature’s Totems | 36 |
Minstrels of the Night | 38 |
The Long Bet | 39 |
The Caves of Josephine | 43 |
Hobnobbing with the Firmament | 50 |
PART TWO | |
PEOPLE AND THINGS [Pg x] | |
Hearth-glow | 61 |
The Want-ad of My Soul | 63 |
The Bell | 65 |
Gossip | 68 |
Love’s Labor Lost | 73 |
The Half Undone | 75 |
The Man Who Poisons Dogs | 77 |
A and The | 79 |
Melted Candles | 80 |
Holly | 83 |
PART THREE | |
MORE RHYME THAN REASON | |
Monday | 87 |
Gettin’ to It | 90 |
Flies | 93 |
A Dino’s Aura | 100 |
Just Cat | 109 |
Danger | 112 |
PART FOUR | |
A PAGEANT OF THE TREES | |
The Forest | 115 |
The Sequoia Gigantia | 118 |
A Spruce’s Root | 120 |
The Douglas Fir | 123 |
The Tamarack | 125 |
The Monterey Cypress | 127 [Pg xi] |
The Madrona | 129 |
The Yellow Pine | 130 |
The Brush | 132 |
The Timber-line | 135 |
The Ghost-Trees | 138 |
PART FIVE | |
RHYMES OF FRANCE | |
Frogs | 143 |
Transition | 145 |
Kiddy of France | 149 |
Spring—1919 | 150 |
Homesick | 152 |
FACING | |
PAGE | |
Temples of the Night | Frontispiece |
By Scarlet Torch and Blade | 4 |
Oregon Snow | 18 |
The Long Bet | 40 |
Hobnobbing with the Firmament | 50 |
The Want-ad of My Soul | 64 |
The Sequoia Gigantia | 118 |
The Douglas Fir | 124 |
The Yellow Pine | 130 |
The Ghost-Trees | 138 |
[1] Reference to Samuel Lancaster, Portland, Oregon.
When the Man of Galilee spoke of “The Tree of Life” the metaphor was used advisedly. Is not a tree the very essence of life unfolding hour by hour and day by day—the harbinger of beauty on mountain and plain, the salvation of the waste-places, the antithesis of all monotony? The tender green of young trees in the sunlight, the golden laughter of autumn boughs, the loneliness of leafless trees against the sunset sky, the mystery of solemn contours drenched in moonlight, the cold, white loveliness of trees in winter—what would earth be without these things? And could the mind of man conceive a treeless heaven?
When the Great Love has stirred your soul and you are one with the Tribe of Trees through the blood-brotherhood of common understanding, you will see a deal of this humanity of ours mirrored in the multifarious tree-life of our western hills. Gird yourself with an open mind, take Fancy with you and go forth—learn of the old men, chat with the gossips, question the seers, ponder the heraldry of their ancient totems—do these things and you will return with Wisdom, and Joy will dance in the heart of you. [Pg 114]
Transcriber’s Notes:
The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up stanzas and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected.